Regional, national and international leaders and global relief organisations denounced for their continued involvement in the denial of justice and a life of dignity for the survivors
Pervez Bari | Clarion India
BHOPAL – Forty long years on and still counting the survivors of the December 2-3 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy, the world’s worst industrial disaster, continue to suffer in silence with no one to hear their woes.
On the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the catastrophe, a rally led by four NGOs working for the survivors marched to the abandoned factory site carrying an effigy of “corporate crime”. The rallyists raised slogans denouncing regional, national and international leaders and global relief organisations for their continued involvement in the denial of justice and a life of dignity for the survivors. The victims of the chronic exposure continue to drink groundwater which has been contaminated by erstwhile Union Carbide’s poisonous wastes even today.
Torch Rally
On Monday, the eve of the 40th anniversary of the disaster, gas survivor organisations carried out a torch rally to commemorate the tragedy. “Successive US presidents starting from Ronald Reagan to Barack Obama have actively protected Union Carbide and Dow Chemical from prosecution in India,” said Rashida Bee, President of the Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Stationery Karmachari Sangh.
“We wish President-elect Donald Trump puts an end to the long history of injustice in Bhopal in his effort to make America great again. We hope he takes action against Union Carbide and Dow Chemical in line with the Republican President Theodore Roosevelt’s Square Deal for regulation of oppressive corporations,” Rashida Bee said.
Balkrishna Namdeo of the Bhopal Gas Peedit Nirashrit Pensionbhogee Sangharsh Morcha said: “In 2008, the Manmohan Singh Government accepted to set up a Medical Commission on Bhopal for long-term medical, economic and social rehabilitation of the gas leak survivors. It was only because of the then chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s opposition that the commission could not be set up. Today, all scientific studies are pointing at the ongoing illnesses and continuing deaths among the half million survivors and the health impact on their children. A commission in 2008 would have prevented the medical disaster we are witnessing today. Will Shivraj Singh Chouhan, who is now a minister at the Centre, take responsibility for the ongoing plight of the Bhopal survivors and their children?” he asked.
“Union Carbide’s owner Dow Chemical’s business in India has increased well over 10 times during the Narendra Modi regime,” said Rachna Dhingra of the Bhopal Group for Information and Action. “And during these 10 years, the Bhopal groundwater that should be cleaned up by Dow Chemical, according to the polluter pays principle, has moved 3 kms into the city. Dow Chemical is selling Union Carbide’s properties to Indian PSUs such as IOCL, GAIL and GACL and for the last two years is claiming that US corporations are not answerable to Indian courts in the criminal case on the disaster.”
Nawab Khan of the Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Purush Sangharsh Morcha castigated international organisations for their continued apathy towards the injustice and misery in Bhopal. “Had the poison in Bhopal spread due to an act of God, international agencies such as the World Health Organisation would have set up specialised health care and long-term research centres to provide relief and the picture after 40 years would have been very different. But it is clear that international relief agencies also treat victims of corporate crime in the same manner as corporations and governments – as expendable people.”
Meanwhile, on the 40th anniversary of the disaster, the demands of the survivors are as under:
1. Criminal Justice
The Central and State governments must:
- Ensure that Prosecution, Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) seeks the harshest measures against Dow Chemical, USA in the criminal case related to the gas disaster.
- Ensure that the prosecution agency sets up a special cell to expedite the criminal proceedings against the Indian subsidiary of Union Carbide and its executives.
- Ensure that the CBI goes after Indian companies and PSUs such as Gas Authority India Limited (GAIL), ONGC, Indian Oil Corporation, Gujarat Alkalies Chlorides Limited, Tamil Nadu Indian Additives Limited, Madhya Pradesh Vindhya Telelinks Ltd that continues to sell Union Carbide’s products even after they were barred from doing so by the CJM, Bhopal.
2. Compensation
Union Carbide / Dow Chemical must pay:
- Compensation for health damages, including congenital malformations, growth retardation and immune system damage in children of gas-exposed parents.
- Compensation for health damages due to contamination of soil and groundwater in and around the abandoned Union Carbide factory site.
The Central and State governments must:
- Sue Union Carbide and Dow Chemical to pay for damages to the children of gas-exposed parents based on hospital records and scientific studies.
- Honour the 1991 settlement order of the Supreme Court by making up the shortfall in compensation by paying Rs 5 lakhs to each of the 5,21,232 gas victims for lifetime injuries.
3. Medical Care & Research
The Central and State governments must:
- Ensure the setting up of the Empowered Commission on Bhopal approved by the Central government in June 2008 with a corpus fund of Rs 1,000 crore for medical, social, economic and environmental rehabilitation of Bhopal survivors.
- Scrap plan of merger between AIIMS, Bhopal and BMHRC that will be disastrous for the health care of survivors.
- Ensure implementation of all recommendations of the Supreme Court-appointed Monitoring Committee on Medical Rehabilitation of survivors and their dependents.
- Ensure free medical care to residents chronically exposed to groundwater contaminated by hazardous waste from the Union Carbide factory.
- Ensure that NIREH (National Institute for Research on Environmental Health) set up in response to demands of survivors’ organisations, sticks to its original mandate and resumes research on the long-term health damages caused by exposure to Union Carbide’s poisons
4. Economic & Social Rehabilitation
The State government must:
- Ensure immediate utilisation of the remaining Rs 129 crore allocated for the generation of jobs and pensions for the survivors of the disaster and their children lying unutilised for the last 14 years.
- Ensure that housing is provided to all residents living in communities affected by groundwater contamination whose dwellings were demolished in January 2023 by the district administration.
- Ensure that the monthly pension of Rs 1,000 per month paid to women widowed by the gas disaster is increased to Rs 3000 per month. A total of 530 women, officially acknowledged to have been widowed due to the disaster but wrongfully denied pension so far, must be included among the beneficiaries.
5. Environmental Remediation
Dow Chemical must:
- Dow Chemical must obey Indian and US laws and clean up the soil and groundwater contaminated due to reckless dumping of hazardous wastes by its subsidiary, Union Carbide.
- Dow Chemical must pay for environmental damages caused by Union Carbide.
The Indian Government must:
- Claim compensation from Dow Chemical for environmental and health damages due to contamination of soil and groundwater in and around the abandoned Union Carbide factory site.
- Seek the assistance of the United Nations Environment Programme for a comprehensive scientific assessment of the contamination of soil and groundwater.
- Scrap plan of incinerating Union Carbide’s 337 MT hazardous waste in Pithampur facility that will only expose a very large population to dangerous chemicals.
The State Government must:
- Scrap plan of pouring concrete over the contaminated factory site and thus covering up for Dow Chemical.
- Provide clean piped drinking water to all communities within 4.5 km from the abandoned Union Carbide site.
- Secure the factory premises and the area of the solar evaporation ponds as directed by the Madhya Pradesh High Court.
On the intervening night of December 2-3, 1984 Union Carbide pesticide manufacturing factory in Bhopal spewed nearly 40 tonnes of poisonous Methyl Iso-cyanate gas exposing over 5,00,000 people to the toxic fumes. While 3,000 people had perished virtually instantly and over the years more than 25,000 have kissed death and the sad saga is continuing uninterruptedly. About half a million people are still suffering from the side effects of the poisonous gas and several thousand people have been maimed for life.
